This recording is absolutely stellar. The performance is too. Vocals and guitars are crystal clear, and Jerry and the rest of the band are completely ON. 'Nuff said. Very special tape.

sdrew about too much dolby
there is no such thing the dolby switch is either on or off you record with dolby or you don't
if you record with dolby the proper thing to do is it play it back that way. for years idiots have turned off the dolby switch for pb and made a tape with the dolby turned off for recording. And people keep doing that within the same chain and the tape is fucked up sounding in no time at all. This transfer was from my master, played back on a properly cared for Nakamichi deck (the best cassette deck maker ever). One doesn't choose dolby settings. So it appears you have no clue what you are talking about. It one of the best sounding tapes I made and you are a clueless idiot.

Big Railroad Blues has always struck me as a bit of a rare occurence, but I wanted to know whether that was an anomaly of my experience and collection, or a verifiable fact. Here are the facts:

BRB was played a total of 175 times between 1970 and 1995. It was played slightly more than 1/3 of the shows in 1971 and 1972 when it was new, but they must have worn it out because it was played only twice in 1974 and not played again until 1979, once at the last Keith & Donna show and again at the end of the year. From 1980 to 1986 the frequecny ranged from 10% to 20%, peaking in 1985. After that it was decidely rarer still, never being played more than 5 times in a single year.

For giggles, I compared it to another Big song - Big River, which was introduced about a year later than BRB and also running until the end. Big River was played 399 times from 1971 to 1995. If you went to a show in '73 or '74 you had about an 85% chance of hearing Big River. Until 1983 you never had less than a 25% chance of a Big River. Thereafter, the frequency drops to between 10 and 15% each year with the occasional deviation - it was only played twice in the 81 1993 shows.

So, there is some accuracy to my perception. Of course the real question is, why? They're both tear-it-up kind of tunes. They, to my ear, have the same kind of space for first set jams. I looked for a pattern, like they remembered it and then played it for a few weeks, but I didn't see that kind of indication. It's a mystery.

This AUD has the warmest sound of the Spokane tapes here. Clear and present, with just enough live ambience. Beautiful. The Dead visited Spokane just this once, but they sure made it count. Everything sparkles. Even the Cowboy Bob covers are played with conviction. Anchorage seems to get the most attention, but if you're following this Northwest run, or just digging into 1980 in general, don't miss this one.

this and a few others in this stretch have too much dolby applied and the highs get a bit squashed. These sources would sound great if the dolby could have been backed off a bit.

wow! nice job on gaining the right real estate to tape this.the 700's are always welcome.thanks for the hook